Social Media

Maya's Mom Launches Mommy-Based Social Network

Maya's Mom, which launched yesterday, is another new entrant in the "MySpace for moms" category. The Palo Alto-based company has received a modest $1 million (approx) angel round from the likes of True Ventures, Tickle.com's James Currier, Flickr's Caterina Fake, Geoff Ralston, Raymond Stern, Jeff Clavier and Wink founder Michael Tanne. That compares to the $1.19 million raised by Minti, an Australian startup that's been around since early this year. The other Silicon Valley-based social site in this space is MothersClick, which was previewed on Mashable earlier this month and launched ten days ago.

Maya's Mom is best described as a question and answer service for parents, or as founder Ann Crady describes it: "Yahoo Answers meets Facebook". The Talk section allows members to post questions, tag them, and receive responses in the form of comments. There are some nice touches here, too: you can subscribe to the comment thread and send a message of thanks when a user supplies a good answer. But there's more to it than that - Maya's Mom lets you create a profile, add friends, upload photos and bookmark your favorite activities.

This Activities section offers yet more utility for the parents of bored kids: you can find kid-friendly activities in your area, edit the listings, rate them and add photos and tags. What's more, you can create general lists of good activities for kids, like party games and stuff to do on a rainy day. The third element, Groups, allows you to connect with people in your area or those who share your interests.

Maya's Mom is a strong attempt, and goes up against a multitude of startups including MommyBuzz, MTV's ParentsConnect, Minti, MothersClick, Famster and RaisingThem (another new social network that came out of beta this month). Minti was the first, and focuses on the sharing of parenting advice articles, along with a Q&A service, groups and forums. MothersClick allows users to ask questions too, but they're trying to differentiate themselves with a focus on local mother’s groups - there's some neat Google Maps integration to help you find groups in your area. ParentsConnect is the most polished, while MommyBuzz is the most garish, and Famster has an all-Flash interface that I think was unwise. Maya's Mom ranks near the top of the pile, with a nice design, decent features and an impressive list of backers.

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is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.